Floral Arrangement Styles
What are the most common styles of floral arrangements?
Traditionally, common styles of floral arrangements are triangle shaped sprays that you would get in a basket filled with oasis. That style is totally dead. Don't ever order them. There are modern arrangements, clean arrangements, ikebana, elemental, and prop-based arrangements in wood.
What is an 'old-fashioned' floral arrangement?
There are two schools of thought in old-fashioned flower arrangements. One is the Neo-Victorian era, where you're looking for a tussie-mussie or a hand-tied bouquet, like a silver container that is old fashioned, soft and romantic. There is also the 50s school of flower arrangements, which is more of something you might have flipped through in a book of flower arrangements at an old fashioned florist, like some place at the mall. The triangle shaped arrangements, like a spray, looks like a funeral spray in my opinion.
What is a 'clean' floral arrangement?
A clean floral arrangement is something that's usually all one type of flower, like two dozen tulips and a glass vase, which is really current and people really like. That way you can really appreciate that one flower; it's not messed up or busy. If you're calling a florist that you don't know, that's a really great stand-by: just call for a clean arrangement and they'll give you an arrangement of lilies. Done.
What is a 'modern' floral arrangement?
Modern floral arrangements usually have a little divergent path from the clean arrangement. You start with a clean arrangement and then you add other elements. You might add antirrhinums to peonies and that's something you wouldn't normally think of. It's just using flowers outside their normal context.
What is a 'jewel-tone' arrangement?
Jewel-tone arrangements were very popular early in the mid-nineties, even the late-nineties; even the whole decade. For jewel tones, you used purples, orange, golds, greens; rich tones you think of, like an amethyst jewel or an emerald. Those are jewel tones in floral arrangements.
What are some new directions in floral design?
There are many different new floral arrangement trends hitting LA, which is pretty exciting. I think the hottest thing is this thing called candy rock, where we use lots of wood and minerals and crystals and it's really hippie, but it's done in a way that it is artistic, modern and clean. You're not getting a messy bunch of herbs, like you might have in the sixties. Nowadays, it's gone beyond; you'll use the wood in a different way or you'll paint it or you'll treat the floral arrangement more in a artistic format. You'd get rid of vases - that's one thing that's happening these days. It's more of a still life. People seem to be asking for a lot of bud vase arrangements; they just want one flower and one container and that's it. They'll have a collection of bud vases on their table. This is like half of my weddings: they want something very simple and cheap, so you use the best flowers just on their own. I think that's a really nice way to see flowers. It's not very expensive, and you can see each flower and it makes them more important that way.
